How Much Does Obamacare Cost In 2024? (2024)

Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), created the health insurance marketplace, which lets you compare available plans in your area.

Obamacare plans can play a vital role in helping Americans get the best health insurance when they aren’t eligible for coverage through an employer. But ACA plans can be pricey if you don’t qualify for subsidies or premium tax credits.

How Much Is Obamacare per Month?

The average Obamacare plan costs $469 per month for a 40-year-old individual, $937 for a couple age 40, $1,214 for a 40-year-old couple with one child, and $1,491 for a 40-year-old couple with two children.

Those costs don’t account for premium tax credits that can reduce Affordable Care Act plan costs if your household income qualifies.

Here are the average monthly costs for Obamacare health insurance plans by age.

What Affects Obamacare Costs?

Obamacare costs are based on multiple factors, including age, whether you smoke, how many people are covered on your plan, the health insurance company, your location, the plan’s metal tier, the benefit design and your household income. A health insurance company can’t use your overall health or gender when setting your rates.

Let’s look at how the different metrics affect health insurance costs.

Health insurance company

Here’s a look at the average health insurance costs for four major health insurance companies in the ACA marketplace.

Plan’s metal tier

The Obamacare marketplace divides health plans into metal tiers solely based on health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The metal tiers include Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Bronze and Silver plans have the lowest premiums and highest out-of-pocket costs. That means you pay less to have those plans initially, but you pick up more of the cost when you need care. Gold and Platinum plans have higher premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs, so you pay more for coverage but less when you need care.

Bronze and Silver plans are the most common ACA plans, while few health insurers offer Platinum plans.

Here are the average monthly Obamacare costs by plan tier.

Benefit design

The plan’s benefit design dictates whether you can get out-of-network care, need referrals to see specialists or must name a primary care provider. The benefit design also influences health insurance costs.

Health maintenance organization (HMO) and exclusive provider organization (EPO) plans, which are the most common types in the ACA marketplace, are more restrictive than preferred provider organization (PPO) and point of service (POS) plans. PPO and POS plans allow you to get out-of-network care, but they’re more expensive than HMOs and EPOs.

Here are the average monthly Obamacare costs per health plan type.

How Can You Save on Obamacare?

More than 12 million Americans with ACA plans receive advanced premium tax credits based on their income. They save an average of $508 per month with advanced premium tax credits, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Those eligible for tax credits have a household income of 400% of the federal poverty level or below. People with Silver plans may also get cost-sharing subsidies that reduce out-of-pocket costs.

What is 400% of the federal poverty level?

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The ACA marketplace makes it easy to figure out if you qualify. You enter your household income information into the ACA marketplace website, which uses that information to provide estimates on how much you’ll pay for health insurance by plan available in your area.

The website will also let you know if you qualify for your state’s Medicaid program. Medicaid is a federal/state health insurance program for lower-income people. The comprehensive insurance plan costs little to nothing for those who qualify, depending on household income and family size.

If you don’t qualify for advanced premium tax credits or a Medicaid plan, here are four ways to save on a plan through the Obamacare marketplace.

Choose an HMO or EPO

HMOs and EPOs are generally cheaper than a PPO or POS plan. PPO and POS plans offer more flexibility, such as allowing out-of-network care, but that typically comes at a higher cost.

Our analysis of ACA marketplace costs found an HMO costs a 40-year-old $438 monthly, and an EPO costs $490 on average. PPOs cost an average of $516 per month, and POS plans cost an average of $568 monthly for that same person.

Select a high-deductible health plan

A high-deductible health plan (HDHP) is one way to save on premiums. HDHPs typically have cheaper health insurance premiums, but higher deductibles mean you may pay more for health care services during the year.

An HDHP is any plan with a health insurance deductible of at least $1,500 for single coverage and $3,000 for family coverage. We found that the average health insurance deductible on the Obamacare marketplace is $5,071, which makes it very much a HDHP.

Obamacare plans that are often considered HDHPs are Bronze and Silver plans. Our analysis of ACA marketplace data discovered that 40-year-olds pay $401 per month on average for a Bronze plan, $526 for a Silver plan and $578 for a Gold plan.

Set up a health savings account

Health savings accounts (HSAs) help you save money tax-free for future health care costs.

Often paired with an HDHP, you own an HSA, so it’s not limited to an employer, and you can take it with you. An HSA also lets you carry over any money into the next year. You can contribute up to $3,850 yearly for single coverage or $7,750 for family coverage.

There are two other savings accounts for health care, a flexible savings account (FSA) and a health reimbursem*nt arrangement (HRA). Those are fairly common in the employer-sponsored health insurance market but aren’t offered on the ACA marketplace.

Get a catastrophic health insurance plan if you qualify

Catastrophic health insurance is an ACA marketplace option only for people under 30 or those facing severe economic issues, such as homelessness. These safety net plans offer many of the same protections found in Obamacare plans, such as requiring that catastrophic plans cover the 10 essential health benefits.

Catastrophic health plans have low premiums, but unlike Obamacare plans, they don’t qualify for advanced premium tax credits or subsidies.

These plans also have high out-of-pocket costs if you need care. Catastrophic health insurance plans can have deductibles of up to $8,700 for single coverage of $17,400 for a family.

Deductibles work differently on catastrophic plans. Once you reach your plan’s annual deductible, the health insurance company picks up the rest of the costs for the year. There is no coinsurance, which is standard in other health insurance plans.

Our analysis found that, on average, 21-year-olds pay $235 monthly for catastrophic health insurance, 27-year-olds pay $247 monthly, 30-year-olds pay $267 monthly, and 40-year-olds pay $301 monthly.

Is Obamacare the Same Thing as the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Yes, Obamacare is another name for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which Congress enacted in 2010.

The ACA created the health insurance marketplace, but there is more to the ACA than the marketplace. The health law also expanded Medicaid eligibility, which opened the door to that coverage for millions of Americans. States decide whether to expand eligibility and for which situations. For instance, some states may have more lenient income eligibility restrictions for pregnant women and dependent children.

The ACA also prevents health insurance companies from denying you coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Additionally, Obamacare allows parents to keep their children on health insurance until age 26. Some states, including Florida, New Jersey and New York, have even more generous age requirements.

What Are the Obamacare Plans?

Obamacare plans are divided by costs into four metal tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum health plans.

Bronze and Silver plans have cheaper premiums but more out-of-pocket expenses, while Gold and Platinum plans have higher premiums but fewer out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and coinsurance when you need care.

Here’s the difference between the plans by how much of the medical bills you have to pay when you get care.

How much Obamacare health plans cover by metal tier

When choosing a metal tier, consider your current health care needs and what’s expected in the coming year. A Bronze or Silver plan may make sense if you’re healthy and don’t expect to need many healthcare services over the next year. A Gold or Platinum plan may be better if you need surgery in the next year, expect to have a child, regularly see a doctor or are on multiple prescription drugs.

Affordable Care Act Requirements

The ACA includes multiple requirements for health insurance companies, including:

• Prohibits lifetime monetary caps on coverage
• Sets annual in-network out-of-pocket maximums
• Requires that insurers in the ACA marketplace cover at least the 10 essential health benefits, including hospitalizations, outpatient care, emergency services and maternity and newborn care
• Doesn’t allow health insurers to cancel health insurance unless there’s fraud
• Forbids insurance companies from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions
• Demands that insurers use a minimum percentage of premiums to pay for member medical services

Obamacare Cost FAQs